Louth County Council seek public submissions on changing Local Property Tax rate

Louth County Council is welcoming written submissions from the public regarding the potential effects of varying the basic rate of Local Property Tax on businesses, individuals and local authority services.

The Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012, makes specific provision that elected members of a local authority may pass a formal resolution to vary the basic rate of the Local Property Tax for their administrative area by a percentage known as the local adjustment factor.

At the meeting set to be held in September, members may set a local adjustment factor within the range of +/- 15% of the basic rate, which would affect funding in proportion to the percentage change, or, may decide against changing the basic rate, in which case funding would remain unchanged.

If a decision is reached to increase the rate, the maximum spending available to Louth County Council would amount to over €1.46 million yearly.

As the majority of households in the region are set in the lowest band of LPT, a maximum increase of 15% would raise household tax by just €13.50 per annum.

For households in the highest LPT bracket, which make up just 2% of properties in the area, an LPT increase of fewer than €75 per annum would be incurred.

The local adjustment factor in Co. Louth has not been altered since 2009, while the CPI has risen by 15.1% which presents obvious challenges in service provision.

The submission deadline is Friday 19th August 2022 and applications can be sent to:

Local Property Tax,

Finance Section,

Louth County Council County Hall,

Millennium Centre, Alphonsus Road,

Dundalk,

Co. Louth.

OR

lptsection@louthcoco.ie